MOT Charter lacrosse enjoying success in first varsity season

The sports programs at MOT Charter continued to grow this spring, with both the boys lacrosse and girls soccer teams fielding their very first varsity teams.

While most programs must fight through early struggles and the obstacles that come along from building a program from scratch, the Mustangs boys lacrosse team has bucked that trend more than halfway through the 2018 campaign.

Through 10 games, the Mustangs find themselves within striking distance in the very competitive Blue Hen Conference, sitting at 7-3 with five games remaining.

“The season has been really exciting,” said MOT Charter Head Coach Brian Marley. “This has been a new experience for the kids on the team and they are enjoying the chance to compete at the varsity level.”

With just a handful of games remaining, the Mustangs have done more than just compete.

Throughout the season, MOT Charter has played hard, sound lacrosse, proving to the rest of the state that if the Mustangs show up on your schedule, it’s far from an easy win.

So far, the Mustangs have defeated Newark Charter, First State Military Academy, St. Georges Tech, Sussex Tech, Conrad, St. Elizabeth and Smyrna.

Many of the players who’ve had a hand in MOT Charter’s wins this season were a part of the program before this year’s varsity season, having grown together on the field preparing for this moment.

“The players who have been with the program since the inaugural season have recognized their accomplishment of being the foundation of a brand new program,” Marley said. “They’ve been extremely valuable as the leaders of our young team.”

There are 12 players on this year’s team who were members of the program during last year’s JV season, including seniors Stephen D’Aguiar, Cavo Fontana, John Hassiepen, Ryan Kachinsky, Carter O’Brien, Terrence Tillman and Noah Tuohey, juniors Alexandre Barnes, Joseph Frushon and Nicholas Perugini, sophomore Nathan Coleman and freshman goalie Jacob Polilng.

Through 10 games, Tillman has led the way on offense, scoring a team-high 41 goals. Fellow senior Tuohey has 26 goals, while Coleman has tallied 17 goals and D’Aguiar has found the back of the net nine times.

Coach Marley has been impressed with his team’s play this year and spoke about what has made the team so successful so soon.

“The aspect of the team that stands out is the resiliency,” Marley said. “Since this is a new experience for our players they have been put in tough situations throughout the some games and it’s nice to see them work through it and have success.”

With games remaining against Brandywine, Red Lion, Mt. Pleasant, Archmere Academy and William Penn, the Mustangs have their eye on even more success down the stretch, hoping to make the tough decisions for the playoff committee even tougher ahead of the state tournament.

“Our goals were simple at the beginning of the season and they have not changed,” Marley said. “We wanted to show improvement every day. We know that we are in a tough conference and in order to have a good showing we will have to continuously improve. Refining our skills and learning from our mistakes are what we try to focus on.”